The Star Trek curse has claimed many a game over the past
several years, and even as recently as Interplay's disastrous
strategy title, Star Trek: New Worlds, but the affliction seems to be
claiming fewer and fewer victims as of late. In the past year alone,
we've witnessed a pair of capable, if not splendid, games in
Interplay's Klingon Academy and Activision's Elite Force. Are these
games a sign of things to come? Well, not quite. Simon & Schuster
is the latest publisher to enter the ring with Star Trek: Deep Space
Nine - The Fallen, and while the game does have it's moments, it
ends up leaving a mediocre impression at best due to a lack of
creative gameplay.

Deep Space Nine: The Fallen is a third-person action game that
uses of a modified version of the Unreal engine. The story is
derived from the Millennium saga, a trilogy of paperbacks and
audio books by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Set towards
the end of television show's sixth season, the story involves the
Pah-wraiths, a race of exiled, all-powerful aliens. The key to
unleashing and harnessing the Pah-wraiths' power lies in three
archaic Red Orbs. So the race is on to find the elusive Orbs, for if
they fall into the wrong hands, it could be the end of life in the
Alpha Quadrant as we know it.

The Fallen presents a unique twist right from the get-go. You can
choose to play as any one of three characters, Captain Sisko,
Major Kira, or Lt. Commander Worf, and in doing so you'll
encounter three completely different gaming experiences. For
instance, as Captain Sisko, your first mission will be to board a
damaged Bajoran ship in order to rescue its surviving
crewmembers from an alien menace. As Lt. Commander Worf,
your first assignment is to defend the USS Defiant against an alien
boarding party. Finally, as Major Kira, your first adventure takes
place down on Bajor, as you visit your dear friend Obanak. Each of
the three characters features their own distinct chapter. In other
words, you simply aren't playing the same campaign with a
different character, bur rather there are three separate chapters in
the game. This does wonders for replay value, particularly for a
game that offers no multiplayer options.

Although the game is ultimately experienced from three different
points of view, the characters frequently cross paths in true Pulp
Fiction fashion. For example, the three opening missions take
place in three different settings, but eventually they all end up in
the same location, the captain's quarters. This technique of
interweaving characters works more often than not, but they'll be
times when pieces of the storyline will feel like they're missing,
simply because you haven't experienced the game from another
character's point of view. That's not to say the story doesn't wrap
up nicely by the end of the game, which it certainly does, but it
might be beneficial to play through The Fallen, mission by
mission, with all three characters at the same time, rather than
completing the game with a selected character and then going
back to start all over with another.

Gameplay in The Fallen is a mixed bag. Although you can choose
to play as different characters, there's very little to distinguish one
character from another, apart from their weapon of preference.
Sure, Lt. Commander Worf comes with his own trusted Bat'leth,
Kira with her Bajoran phaser, but what about physical and other
attributes? The puzzles do little to define the characters in their
own right. Rather than innovative tasks, The Fallen falls back on
the tried and tested formula of third-person puzzles. Finding key
cards to open doors and locating an object, which has
conveniently been left behind, that will set off a certain chain of
events are instituted throughout each campaign. The combat
system isn't much better either. Weapons automatically lock onto
the closest target, resulting in firefights that require little skill other
than strafing back and forth until your weapon finally targets an
enemy rather than a crate. Unfortunately, auto-aim cannot be
turned off. When all is said and done, while there are three distinct
campaigns in The Fallen, when you peel away the storyline, the
gameplay is rather mundane. The only real highlights of the
gameplay are some commendable Deep Space Nine environments
and stellar use of the tricorder, by far the best and most effective
use of one in a Star Trek game so far.

To no one's surprise, the presentation of The Fallen is by far it's
best feature. The Unreal engine continues to look incredible.
While many of the opening missions are rather dark and bleak, it
helps forge the way for some incredible lighting effects. As you
progress through the game, the levels become more and more
colourful. The character models look convincingly like their
television show equivalents and the character movements are fluid
and realistic. Besides the odd visual glitch, often due to erratic
camera movements (almost always present in third-person games),
there are very few flaws when it comes to the graphics. The sound
department is right on cue with the visuals. With the exception of
Captain Sisko, each of the characters' voices are provided by the
actors who portray them on television. The sound effects are also
straight from the show, and the musical score helps create a tense
atmosphere.

When all is said and done and the galaxy is safe once again, The
Fallen falls victim to repetitive and uninspiring gameplay. The
inclusion of separate characters with unique campaigns, along
with the overall look and sounds of the game, are no match for
dull gameplay. Deep Space Nine fans won't be terribly
disappointed, but they'll be little more than satisfied. The Fallen is
just another in a growing crowd of formulaic third-person action
titles. It may have avoided the Star Trek curse, but it wasn't able to
elude the Star Trek flu.